If you’re noticing a lack of mechanically separated chicken and hydrolyzed corn gluten in your diet, you’re not alone. The tragic ConAgra factory explosion that killed three people near Raleigh, N.C. ended Slim Jim production until this fall. [Update: The factory is reopening on July 27.] It was the only place where the snack sticks are manufactured.
Citigroup analyst David Driscoll cut the stock to “hold” from “buy” due to the explosion, and was quoted as saying that Slim Jim generates $200 million in annual sales and $0.06 a share for ConAgra.
“Slim Jim loyalty is very high,” food industry consultant Jim Degan told the New York Post. “If you eat Slim Jims, you aren’t going to find brand B or C to be an acceptable substitute.”
It’s no tragedy, it’s true, but it shows how an accident in one factory can affect a major company—and, more importantly, corner stores across the country.
Sudden Shortage of Slim Jims Causes Widespread Panic [Minyanville]
(Photo: spidra)
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Snap into a Slim Jim!
@Thassodar: EAT ME!
@Thassodar: oooooo Yah!
There are two kinds of “stick meat” (how I refer to them, not a euphemism) at convenience stores. Is Slim Jim the unwrapped ones that people rub their grubby hands all over instead of using the tongs?
@dohtem: I believe the Slim Jims are the individually wrapped one, in bright yellow and red bisphenol emitting wrappers.
@SacraBos: Are you heating them IN the wrappers?
@Stephen Schenck: You heat Slim Jims?
@dohtem: I would avoid grabbing unwrapped stick-meat, but if you really want to, do not use tongs!
@morlo: Too funny. Too, too funny. I wish I was alone at work today, because that deserves a big laugh, instead of muffled chortles.
@dohtem: Ugh, I have seen people catch some nasty things from unwrapped meat.
We need a Meat Snack Czar to address this situation.
@HiPwr: Well, it’s part of the Car Czar’s duties, since it’s quick-stop related.
@HiPwr: Given the Car Czar’s qualifications, he might be better suited for overseeing meat snack related issues.
@HiPwr:
I would like to nominate Randy “Macho Man” Savage for the position.
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: I second the nomintation. Now who the hell is he?
@HiPwr: A professional wrestler who did a series of Slim Jim spots back in the late 80s/early 90s, I’m sure someone here can youtube up one of them for us.
@dragonfire81:
Ask, and ye shall receive:
+ Watch video
@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: OH yeeeAH!
I couldn’t help but think of that tribute song that Macho Man Randy Savage did for the late Mr. Perfect. He should get back in the studio to rap about how much he misses Slim Jims.
@Kyattsuai: I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.
@Kyattsuai:
Speaking of getting back in the studio, I’m waiting for the Macho Man’s follow-up diss to the Hulkster. I feel like there was some unanswered questions in his last LP.
First the Fat Boys break up, now this.
@JoeDirt: lol, thanks for that Jay-Z reference.
Eh, just wait for the Meat Blimp.
I’d say the 3 dead is a bit tragic…..
@Chris Irvine:
I will place some Slim Jim on the ground for them.
@NotYou007: I’ll grind up 40 slim jims and pour it onto the ground for them.
By the time Big Slim Jim gets the production lines going again, their customers will have learned to get their fix with kielbasa.
@rpm773: You think hillbillies on welfare have the time for that? pshaw i say
If you’ve had a slim jim since grade school, you’ll recall that they’re mostly made of plastic and sawdust anyways. Horrible little devices (food is the wrong word), they are. They have the texture of well-greased cardboard and the taste to match. Awful.
Tragic about the people that got hurt and killed, but I think the world would be for the better without these abominations being sold as “meat”.
I love Slim Jims. Especially the hot n’ spicy ones. And you are correct, there is no substitute.
Why doesn’t President Obama release meat from the Strategic Slim Jim Reserve? For the love of God tell me we’ve got a Strategic Slim Jim Reserve. Kentucky and Mississippi each have 2 senators and we haven’t established a Strategic Slim Jim Reserve? DID WE LEARN NOTHING FROM HURRICANE KATRINA AND 9/11?????????
@TCinIowa: Well I learned that only fools think that 29°57′53″N 90°4′14″W will be land for quite some time. Yeah go ahead, go rebuild your house, I’m sure you’ll sit out the next one too and then the coasties will have to come along and cut a hole in your new house’s/house’s new roof to get you out… just like last time.
pshh the Acadians/Cajuns knew something right when they built the French Corridor: only build things on land that is ABOVE sea level because no one, NO ONE, has the elite land making skills of the Dutch.
I’m off to go stock up on Slim Jims to resell on eBay. I’ll be rich!
Step into a slim jim!!!!!
*I swear, it was until the Slim Jim explosion last month that I found out that they sais snap and not step*
Isn’t this basically a processed meat version of beef jerky?
I feel pretty confident saying Slim Jims have killed more than three people
there are so many ways I could go wrong with a comment on Slim Jims/any of the previous comments:) >Resists< Slim Jims are the nasty hard-to-open packages of dried salty meat. That taste like chemicals. The world is now a better place…
It’s easy to ridicule the salty beef product, but with $200 million in annual sales… a lot of people based their livelihood on them. I don’t just mean factory workers or convenience store clerks, either. I’m talking doctors and nutrition specialists. They’ve got to have something easy to treat once in awhile. What will America do with inferior processed beef snack?
@ReverendBrown: Theres always the 10 brands of beef jerky in various flavors. And spam. And corned beef. And breakfast sausage at Dennys.
@pecan 3.14159265: Those contain actual meat though. Slim Jims can’t possibly contain more than 2% meat.
I’ll bet it was a warning shot across our bow by the North Koreans.
First Slim Jims. Then the Internet. What’s next, Apple Pie?!
What the heck is this minyanville source?!
from their about page:
“THE MINYANVILLE PROMISE
Secure Your Future: We will help you understand how the financial world works to make you more confident and successful.
Feed Your Brain: We will provide our best thinking to make you smarter so you can make better decisions.
Make You Smile: We will deliver it in a way that will help you laugh while you learn.”
That doesn’t sound like a journalistic outlet to me.
Somewhere, Macho Man Randy Savage is weeping as he loses the source of his power…
ConAgra gets an F for business continuity.
I must be the only one on here that actually likes Slim Jims…they used to be a necessity when I’d go backpacking…
@Smashville: eventhough I doubt they contain more than 2% meat as I’ve stated prior…I love them. They’re never big enough though, I want it to actually hurt inside after only one.
@Smashville: They are good for backpacking and road trips… but I’m more of a Beef Steak Nugget kind of girl.
Diss Slim Jims all you want, but as nasty as they may be, when you crave one, nothing else will hit the spot. Hell, they helped me get my blood pressure from a tragic 80/60 to a respectable 94/70!
Sim Jims = meat gum
Strange but delicious.
Just noticed the beef part on the story’s label just says beef now. Guess they thought the beef heart part was going to frighten weak stomachs away. I used to love to point it out to people. Oh well, at least I still have the anchovies in Worcestershire sauce.
Follow the continuing saga at http://pulse.alacra.com/analyst-comments/ConAgra_Foods_Inc-C1004092 and
http://www.alacrastore.com/company-snapshot/ConAgra_Foods_Inc-1004092